One conventional class of barbecue devices provides a heating compartment which raises air to a temperature effective for convective cooking of foods located in an adjacent compartment. The adjacent cooking compartment may be located vertically or laterally of the heating compartment. All of the heated air generally passes over the food and exits through a stack having a damper for regulating the output air flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,348 shows many features of a conventional convective barbecue oven. Inlet air is heated by a fire for convective heating of the meat in an oven unit located beside a fire box. The heated air exits through a smoke stack having an internal damper for controlling air flow. Meat drippings may be returned to the fire to assist in flavoring the meat. The total air inlet and outlet flow may be regulated over the meat to control the rate of cooking to allow for unattended continuous cooking.
Yet another apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,666 which shows a vertical displacement of the meat racks above a fire box. A grill is disposed directly above the fire for cooking foods using direct radiant and conductive heat from the fire. A damper plate is provided to direct some heat about a pan collecting drippings from the meat and thereafter to the cooking chamber.
Conventional barbecue units generally incorporate various features shown in the above barbecue units. In these units, the meat is cooked by convection of the heated air which generally also contains smoke products. Further, flavoring from the meat drippings is obtained when the drippings fall into the fire and this flavoring frequently has a scorched taste. Further, no provision is made to further utilize the radiant energy from fire in the fire box, although occasional direct application to a grill is provided for cooking. Since smoking may consume several hours, it would be desirable to make further cooking use of the heat developed by the fire.
Many conventional smoking apparatus also require the addition of moisture in the smoking chamber to keep the meat from drying out. This is not generally desirable and is frequently not a successful approach.
These and other problems of the prior art are overcome by the present apparatus wherein an improved device is provided for slowly cooking meats in a chamber remote from a fire box while enabling cooking to be done directly over the fire in the fire box.